Achi news desk-
When the Texas Rangers begin the defense of their World Series title, the most intriguing person on their roster may be someone who had no part in last year’s title run.
Wyatt Langford, a 2023 first-round draft pick who has played just 44 games in the minors, is expected to be part of the big league club on Thursday’s opening day. In Langford and fellow outfielder Evan Carter, the Rangers have two of the game’s top six prospects according to MLB Pipeline – and both are already in the majors.
“I think it’s a young players’ league right now,” said Chris Young, the former major league pitcher who is now Texas’ general manager. “I think over the last few years, with the development of players and really the development that’s happening on the amateur side, players are coming in more prepared for professional baseball. And you certainly see that with the way they’ve been able to step up to the big leagues and have early success.”
The Rangers’ willingness to turn over their top prospects — Carter came up last September and was a major contributor in the postseason — reflects an aggressiveness with young players that seems more common than it was nearly a decade ago. , when the Chicago Cubs kept Kris Bryant in. the minors long enough in his first season in 2015 that his free agency was eventually delayed for a year. Bryant lost a grievance accusing the team of manipulating service time, but the latest collective bargaining agreement in 2022 included provisions aimed at stopping that practice.
Baseball executives have rarely acknowledged that service time affects their decisions, so it is unlikely that they will rush to acknowledge the new rules for changing call-up decisions. But Langford is in the majors, and so is Jackson Merrill, a 20-year-old outfielder who made his debut when San Diego began its season in South Korea last week. Milwaukee outfielder Jackson Chourio and Detroit outfielder Colt Keith are also slated to be on opening day big league rosters. That’s less of a surprise because both signed lucrative contracts this offseason — $82 million for eight years for Chourio and over $28 million for six years for Keith — despite having no major league experience.
When Baltimore announced that shortstop Jackson Holliday would begin the season in the minors, it was newsworthy in part because that slower approach with top prospects hasn’t been as common lately.
“He’s going to be an amazing player,” said infielder Kolten Wong, who was in camp with the Orioles. “Sometimes, the business aspect, you know how the game is run.”
Baltimore general manager Mike Elias cited Holliday’s adjustment to second base and his lack of reps against left-handed pitching in explaining the decision. Down the road in Washington, the Nationals will start the season without outfielder James Wood, who was sent to the minors despite an impressive spring at the plate. Wood has not played above Double-A.
“I love watching them play, but sometimes I have to put the blinders on,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said of his team’s top prospects. “We want to get them going, get them off to a fast start and then we’ll see where we are in a month, two months, three months, however long it takes.”
Not long ago, it almost felt like a foregone conclusion that the best prospects, if they hadn’t already reached the majors, would be called up in mid-to-late April instead of opening day. After the Cubs drafted Bryant on April 17, 2015, they called up Addison Russell four days later. The same day as Russell’s debut, Carlos Rodón pitched for the first time for the crosstown White Sox.
The following season, Blake Snell made his debut for the Tampa Bay Rays on April 23, and fellow pitcher José Berrios made his debut on April 27 with Minnesota. In 2017, Cody Bellinger was called up by the Dodgers on April 25. In 2018, Ronald Acuña Jr., (April 25), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (April 26) and Gleyber Torres (April 22) had to wait a little before getting a shot.
By then, service time was a sensitive topic – but not sensitive enough for Seattle Mariners president Kevin Mather, whose comments in 2021 to the Rotary Club of Washington included his belief that top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert would not likely to start the season with the team. as a way to keep them under club control for longer. After that and other problematic comments becoming public, Mather resigned.
The following year, the new collective bargaining agreement included a provision that allowed top prospects to get a full year of service time—regardless of when they were actually called up—if they finished in the top two in voting. Rookie of the Year. The CBA also gives teams a chance to gain an additional draft pick if one of its prospects is promoted early enough to earn a full year of service time – and then goes on to place enough in the voting on for various awards.
When Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson and Arizona’s Corbin Carroll won Rookie of the Year honors last season — beating out a historically strong group of rookie hitters — the Orioles and Diamondbacks earned an extra pick.
It didn’t seem like a complete coincidence that in 2022, under that new CBA, Kansas City gave outfielder Bobby Witt Jr. on the opening day roster. Seattle did the same with Julio RodrÃguez. So is Detroit with Spencer Torkelson. Last year, Anthony Volpe of the Yankees and Jordan Walker of the Cardinals started the season in the majors.
Now Holliday has to wait, but Chourio, Langford, Merrill and Keith are in the majors at the start.
“I think it’s probably case by case — where certain teams are, what their future looks like,” former Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich said. “I think it’s a good thing that a lot more young lads are getting the chance to play sooner, and not having to wait until whenever the deadline is or when they get an extra year of service time. It’s definitely positive.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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AP Baseball Writer Stephen Hawkins contributed to this report.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
